In this case, the "company town" is a town built not around a coal mine or a lumber mill, but around a piano factory.
What do I mean by "soap operetta"? Well, just as an operetta is a comedy in somewhat scaled-down opera form, "Grand" was (far more than outright soap opera spoofs like "Soap" or "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") a comedy in scaled-down soap opera form. Also, like a typical operetta, and unlike a typical soap opera spoof, the humor was gentle, witty, and largely suitable for a family audience.
I never even knew there WAS a second season of the show, or that the second season mostly threw out the "soap operetta" format, but what I saw of the series, I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters were the sort of people you actually would want to meet, something sadly lacking in an awful lot of television.
And the open used throughout the first season was certainly one of the best sitcom opens ever constructed.
